Immigration chief moves top airport personnel around

MANILA, Philippines—To help get rid of scalawags in its ranks, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has reshuffled 19 officials assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and seven other airports.

BI Officer in Charge Siegfred Mison said he assigned new personnel to man 12 key posts at Naia’s four terminals, while seven others were named acting head supervisors of the other airports.

“This is just the start of a major revamp that was initiated to further improve our operations at the airports, deter corruption and bolster the campaign against human trafficking and human smuggling in our ports of entry,” Mison said in a statement.

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He said the reshuffle was also aimed at enhancing the BI campaign to stop suspected human trafficking victims from leaving, and illegal and undesirable aliens from entering the country.

Antifraternization

BI personnel at the airports will also be rotated on a regular basis to prevent “fraternization, which has been tagged as a major source of corruption among employees,” Mison said.

He said immigration officer Ma. Carmelita Vitan was now acting chief of the bureau’s airport operations division (AOD), which oversees BI’s activities at Naia and all the other international airports.

Eddie Santelices and Chona Marie Keyser were named AOD deputy chiefs for operations and administration, respectively, while lawyer Floro Balato Jr. was designated head of the travel control and enforcement unit, Mison said.

He said Dennis Opiña, Rogelio Siapian, Mary Ann Velasco and Jaime de Guzman were named head supervisors of Naia 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, and their deputies are Nenita Inciong, Jemma Driz, Ricardo Sarao and Sheila Rosacay.